1. Field of the Invention
This invention involves the introduction of gases or volatile liquids to and removal thereof from a confined atmosphere, and more particularly relates to a device for opening glass-sealed vessels in a confined atmosphere in order to recover the gas or volatile liquid contained therein. 2. Description of the Prior Art
The necessity for recovering gases and volatile liquids from a confined atmosphere or introducing gases and volatile liquids into a confined atmosphere is encountered in many areas of science. The conventional method for accomplishing this involves the use of a glass-sealed vessel fitted with a glass breakseal.
A glass breakseal consists of a length of glass tubing drawn out at one end to form a thin capillary tube. The narrow capillary part is bent and sealed at its end in order to form a fragile closure which can be easily broken when some object strikes the tip. A complete breakseal is formed by placing a straight piece of glass tubing over the drawn out sealed tip and then sealing it to the shoulders of drawn tube. The glass breakseal is attached along with an open glass tube to a glass vessel which will receive the gas or volatile liquid.
In order to recover a gas from a confined atmosphere, the open tube of the vessel is attached to the confined atmosphere. The vessel is then evacuated and filled with the gas, usually by employing a cryogenic fluid to trap the gas in the vessel. With the cryogenic fluid still in place, a glass blow torch is used to seal the open tube, and the vessel is removed from the confined atmosphere with the gas thus being contained and sealed in an all glass leakproof vessel.
When the contained gas is to be introduced into a confined atmosphere, a small metal slug or other movable weight is placed in the tube containing the breakseal, and the tube containing the breakseal is then connected to the confined atmosphere. A magnet is used to raise a metal weight, which is then allowed to drop and fracture the glass breakseal, thus releasing the gas from the vessel to the confined atmosphere. Alternatively, when using a non-metallic weight, the glass-sealed vessel may be either shaken or inverted to cause the weight to break the glass breakseal.
Breakseals may find application wherever gases or volatile liquids are handled. Typically, they are utilized to recover gases from vacuum systems or to introduce gases into vacuum systems. Also, they are utilized to remove gases from an experimental apparatus for introduction into another experimental or analytical apparatus.
The use of breakseals has several disadvantages. First, although breakseals can be made using pure quartz tubing, the properties of quartz are such that it is frequently very difficult to break the seal no matter how thin the wall of the seal might be. Second, breakseals are either time consuming to fabricate or extremely expensive to purchase since they are made entirely by hand labor. Finally, any vessel which contains a breakseal is fragile and prone to leakage.
Thus, it would be a decided improvement over the prior art to have a device which could be employed to open a standard piece of glass tubing which has been conventionally heat sealed at its end and thereby eliminate the need to attach a breakseal to the tubing. Such a device would permit the utilization of glass-sealed vessels that are sturdy, inexpensive and versatile. In addition, this would allow gas filled ampoules, consisting of standard glass tubing conventionally sealed at both ends, to be opened. Furthermore, a glass-sealed vessel of any shape, to which a single glass tube has been attached, could be opened by utilizing such a device to open the attached tube.
Accordingly, a primary object of this invention is to provide a practical device for opening glass-sealed vessels in a confined atmosphere.
Another object is to provide a device of the character described which may be employed to open a glass tube which has been conventionally sealed thereby eliminating the need to use a breakseal.
A further object is to provide a device of the character described which may be employed to open a vessel which comprises standard glass tubing which is conventionally sealed at each end.
A still further object is to provide a device of the character described which may be employed to open a vessel of any shape to which a length of glass tubing has been attached.
A related object is to provide a device of the character described which may be employed to open tubes made of pure quartz.